Local power lifter wins gold in South AfricaLocal attorney-at-law Jeff Phillips spends much of his time working in his office in downtown Russellville. But in his free time, Phillips is a professional power lifter. Phillips recently won gold in his weight and age class at a power lifting tournament in Potchefstroom, South Africa. In a June international competition hosting 42 countries, Phillips placed first in squat (405 pounds), second in deadlift (505 pounds) and third in bench press...

Joe Gibbs visits RussellvilleRussellville received a visit from a sports legend on Tuesday. Joe Gibbs, former Washington Redskins head coach and owner of Joe Gibbs Racing, hosted a breakfast meeting as part of his Game Plan for Life project at Arkansas Tech University’s Tucker Coliseum. Gibbs shared his life experiences with local men and compared the day-to-day challenges of the Christian walk to the world of football. “The game plan I talk about is simple, and it’s just...

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Shane Crabtree and Tanner OttThe Courier Your Messenger For The River Valley

Tactics to apply for fishing the Big Bass ClassicThe check has been written, your entry fee is in the mail, and now you are preparing to fish the Dardanelle pool for this year’s Big Bass Classic. So what’s your plan? There are several ways to look at this. Personally, I hate pre-fishing for big bass events. Through the years, I have caught some of the biggest fish I have ever caught in the days leading up to these events and despite your best wishes or intentions, you are not going to catch ...

Arvest supports Gardner-Goodwin tournament The Russellville Country Club will host the 2014 Gardner-Goodwin 4-Ball tournament on June 20-22. Honoring the names of key country club contributors Dr. Ellis Gardner and Joe Goodwin, the tournament is made up of two-person teams, with each individual playing their own ball and recording only the best score per hole. Tournament manager Neal Westbrook said the June 20 event will be a shootout for golfers which allows them to warm up and enjoy ...

Lake Dardanelle ready for a Big Bass BonanzaAlthough the Arkansas Big Bass Bonanza is held during the heat of an Arkansas summer, it still brings out large numbers of weekend anglers attracted by the opportunity to cash in on some life changing money. This year’s Big Bass Bonanza will take place along the Arkansas River from anywhere within the natural state from the Mississippi border to the Oklahoma border June 27-29. All the rivers, streams, oxbows, and backwaters accessible by a boa...

Wounded Warriors reeling in successNumbers were down, but spirits were high Saturday during the second annual Wounded Warrior Project Bass Tournament at Lake Dardanelle. Arkansas Wildlife Federation (AWF) president Wayne Shewmake would have liked to have seen a few more anglers on the water, but said he considered the tournament a success. “We think it’s gone real well,” he said. “We would have liked to have had the 50 anglers we had hoped for, but people have things happen tha...

Potts Inn hosts 2nd tourneyPOTTSVILLE — The second annual Potts Inn Moonshine golf tournament will tee off June 30 at the Galla Creek Golf Club to help raise money for structural repairs at the historic Potts Inn Museum in downtown Pottsville. Pam Scarber, president of the Pope County History Foundation, said the repairs would cost around $45,000. “We’re having some problems with the seals and the foundation,” she explained. “The foundation is basically rocks stacked up...

California Chrome's Triple Crown quest collapses NEW YORK (AP) — California Chrome failed in his bid to win the first Triple Crown in 36 years on Saturday, losing the Belmont Stakes to 9-1 long shot Tonalist. The Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner finished in a dead-heat for fourth with Wicked Strong. California Chrome's loss extended the longest drought without a Triple Crown champion. Three tough races in five weeks proved too demanding for California Chrome, who was sent off as the heavy...

Wounded Warriors to fish Lake DardanelleArkansas Wildlife Federation president Wayne Shewmake said he knew it had to happen again after several veterans thanked him and others involved with the Wounded Warrior Project bass fishing tournament on Lake Dardanelle last year. “The whole thing was very successful,” Shewmake said. “We had numerous people come up and thank us and ask if we would do it again next year. That was one of the reasons we knew we had to.” The Wounded Warrior Proje...

Preparing for summer's heatMany of you probably thought that it wasn’t going to happen this year, after all we just completed one of the coldest winters on record and have had a really cool spring, so we are surely not going to have a hot summer this year! Well, welcome to Arkansas, the home of the hottest and most humid summers known to man. Well, maybe not exactly that hot, but summer in Arkansas can leave you longing for one of those nice cool spring days we have jus...

What’s the worst thing that could happen?I was having a conversation with a co-worker the other day about the stupid things that we’ve done and lived to tell about. The story below is always near the top of my list. I wrote this back a few years ago in 2006 but after reading it, thought it might be worth publishing again. It’s funny now, but I can assure you, that day no one was laughing! It was a weekend that both Greg and I had waited on all year, the last weekend of October. For t...

Bassmasters provides excitementThe Bassmasters Elite Series 2014 appearance on Lake Dardanelle and the Arkansas River may very well have been our best professional tournament on this lake ever! It had every kind of drama imaginable — from a cold front that made the start of the tournament feel like a winter event, including hard-to-find living quarters for our visitors. Russellville has never seen a shortage of motel space, but apparently there were so many things happening...

Looking back on a memorable deer huntWhile it’s still a long way until deer season and I have barely wet a hook this spring, I’m forced to recall a deer hunt that still rings clear. Where was I going to hunt in the morning? Being a mobile deer hunter who likes to hunt out of a climbing treestand, I rarely hunt out of the same tree twice in any given year. Furthermore, while our choices are greater, this can be the most frustrating part of our hunt — choosing where to hunt. Some h...

Halls display success from hard workThe University of Missouri Tigers starting right guard Mitch Hall spoke to the Russellville Cyclones football team on Monday about how special it is to put on the Cyclones jersey on Friday nights. He ought to know — Hall graduated from Russellville High School in 2011 and spent his Fridays in high school battling for the line of scrimmage under Cyclones head coach Jeff Holt for four years. “I told them about having pride in the program,” Hall ...

The pros and cons of professional fishingThis past week Russellville and the entire Arkansas River Valley experienced a population increase as the Bassmaster Elite Series rolled into town for one of their tour stops throughout the year. Bass fishing is big business and when you get the best anglers in the country on your home lake the tourism dollars see a huge increase and local businesses benefit as fans and anglers spend a part of their year in our fair city. As a kid, professiona...

Here’s the ‘rest of an outdoor writer’s story’The sun glistened off the ivory antlers of the heavy bodied buck as he made his way through the frost-covered oak flat. It was a large deer, but I elected not to shoot, hoping for a better buck. Outdoor writers try to paint a picture, of sorts, with their words. They know full well the reader isn’t in the stand next to them, so it’s pretty much their word against yours. Lots of adjectives and adverbs to describe the hunt in so much detail, you...

Jason Christie cracks Dardanelle for come-from-behind win Jason Christie pulled off a 4-ounce “wonder” win Sunday in the Bassmaster Elite at Lake Dardanelle. It wasn’t a case of anyone thinking that a Christie victory would be a wonder. After all, the pro from Park Hill, Okla., was already an Elite champ from the 2013 season and has a very successful career going. It was Christie himself who was kept guessing. “At what point did you know you’d won this?” a reporter asked Christie, who had started out...

Crews is steady as she goes on Lake Dardanelle“Steady” was the first word John Crews came up with when asked about his first day of competition in the May 15-18 Bassmaster Elite at Lake Dardanelle. “One good one here, one good one there, and at the end of the day, it was looking really nice,” Crews said. “Rock steady” is a more accurate description of Crews’ Thursday performance. The pro from Salem, Va., weighed a five-bass limit of 22 pounds, 9 ounces, for a lead of 12 ounces over Greg H...

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Helen Northcutt / For The CourierThe Courier Your Messenger For The River Valley

Revitalized Dardanelle is Elite stop No. 5Limit catches should be the norm when the Bassmaster Elite Series pros get going today on Lake Dardanelle. Frank Leone, a fisheries management biologist for the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, claims that 2013 was the best year for bass fishing here since 2007. “It will be good in 2014, too,” Leone said. The bass in Lake Dardanelle, a 34,300-acre run-of-river reservoir, were negatively impacted by three consecutive high water years from 200...

Former Cyclone joins Vikings in NFL free agencyFormer Russellville Cyclones and Belhaven Blazer offensive lineman Matt Hall’s dreams were on the line on Saturday in the final moments of the 2014 NFL Draft. For his mother, Linda Hall, the uncertainty and anxiety leading up the draft was the worst part. “It was an emotional week,” Linda said. “All week, just not knowing. These have been his dreams for his whole life ... ever since he was 3-years-old. He’s always been sure that it was going t...